I realized I kind of just jumped into this whole natural hair blogging thing without giving you guys any background on my hair. SO, I’m going to walk you through my hair story from the time I began using the creamy crack, my damaged period, to my journey to natural healthy hair!

I was 12 years old when I began pestering my mom to relax my hair. I was one of the only black girls in my school and the only one with this thick, coarse hair. Finally, one day my mom let my aunt relax my hair and I loved it. For the first time ever I was able to run my fingers through my hair and flip it from side to side. (You couldn’t tell me nothing lol) My hair was healthy, thick and a little past my shoulders. It was exactly what I wanted. The years following my first relaxer my mom was the main caretaker when it came to my hair. She moisturized, oiled my scalp and styled it every Sunday for school that week. (Ya’ll remember those Sunday nights lol) I really didn’t do much to it during my early teen years…but then High School hit. I had a different look in mind for every day of the week and my hair had to be pin straight or else my mood was off. Lol. Heat became my best friend and all the little things I saw my mom do to my hair went out the window. I would comb my hair with small tooth combs, I was using a flat iron just about every day and I never put any moisturizer or oil in my hair. (I wanted to keep my hair as straight as possible without it reverting). I was pretty much torturing my hair and finally after years of abuse, my hair was completely broken.

I was a freshman in college when my hair was a total lost cause. I had no idea how to get my hair healthy and growing again. So what did I do? The next best thing, weave! Lol (If you don’t have it, fake it!) I got my first sew-in from a friend of mine and I was cute for a while…but with me knowing nothing about weave or hair in general, I didn’t know how to take care of it or more importantly, how to take it out. I just remember my head itching like crazy, going to my dorm and taking out all of the tracks and my bee hive braiding pattern. After having a sew-in installed for 2 months, I hoped straight in the shower and began shampooing my hair…and If you’re an avid weave wearer you know this is a huge NO-NO! I didn’t detangle, comb or brush through my hair once prior to me washing my hair and the second my hair hit the water I felt it begin to mat between my fingers. My hair was a mess. It was already uneven, thin and broken so this completely destroyed my hair. Desperate and distraught I looked up products that could help me get these huge knots out of my hair and I found the Mane ‘n Tail detangler. I ran out with a bonnet on my head and picked up the detangler from Sally’s and was able to salvage some of my hair, but the damage was done. I knew I needed to do something to get my hair to grow so I jumped on Youtube and searched “How to Grow Relaxed Hair”. To my surprise, there were countless black girls on Youtube with long hair! And not just “black-girl long” but long, waist length hair. I was opened up to a whole world of hair products, tips, and tricks and from that day I started my healthy hair journey. (I was still relaxing my hair at this time) I made up a regimen for myself with help from Traycee Simmons and UloveMegz and followed it religiously for about two and a half years. My hair was healthy and thriving and I was very happy with the progress I had made…but I noticed something. I had gotten big on watching youtube during this time and a lot of the girls I started my hair journey with began transitioning to natural. I watched them fall in love with their curls, experiment with natural hair styles and noticed the thick luscious hair I could have if I stopped relaxing. I had been doing 3-month stretches during this time so I started out by extending my stretch to 4 months, then 5, then 6, and before I knew it I had gone the entire year without relaxing! I made the decision to not relax my hair ever again. I did my first length check and saw my little kinky curls coming out of my scalp and I knew I had made the right decision. I could no longer put chemicals on the hair I was meant to have. It was so thick compared to my thin relaxed hair and I was in awe! I had thickness, curls and everything! Lol. I couldn’t believe I was choosing to thin out my naturally thick hair with chemicals for all these years when I could have just grown it out and styled it in so many different ways. Not to mention how much length I would’ve had by now! Lol But I got through it and I learned so many valuable lessons along the way that I’m still able to use to this day.

Leave a comment down below if you relate to my story in any way! I’d love to hear about your journey. 🙂

Hi Shianne! I just started a natural hair feature series on my blog and I’d love it if you’d like to share your amazing hair story or hairstyles as a glam natural feature on my blog for others to be inspired, thank you!